Manny Roth, owner of famed Greenwich Village nightclub Cafe Wha? died yesterday at his home in Ojai, California. He was 94 years old.
Roth, who was born in Indiana and moved to New York after World War II, purchased Cafe Wha?'s MacDougal Street space in the late 1950s, which had previously been a stable. He transformed the building into a 325-person capacity coffee house, inviting performers—including a young Bob Dylan—to play for little to no cash. Dylan got his start there playing backup harmonica, right after he moved to New York from Minnesota at age 19. "He was just a kid," Roth once told reporters. "The first time I heard Dylan get up on an open mic, I'm thinking to myself, 'This kid doesn't have a prayer. He can't sing, can't play and certainly doesn't have any stage presence.'"
In addition to Dylan, Roth helped launch the careers of Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen and Richard Pryor, among others, and cafe performers included Woody Allen, George Carlin and Peter, Paul & Mary.
Financial problems plagued Roth's Cafe Wha? however, and he left the business in the early 1970s. He moved to California about a decade ago, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 2012, Van Halen—including member and Roth's nephew David Lee Roth—played a reunion show at now-touristy Cafe Wha?, with Roth attending as a guest.
